Geauga Lake trip report, Sunday, July 22, 2007

My husband and I arrived at Geauga Lake at a little after 11am. We could NOT believe our eyes, when we saw a huge line up of cars waiting to get into the park, and every line for the parking tollbooth full of cars. The lot was about 2 rows shy of being full!

We had to park far...very far. I usually know the ins and out of these parking lots, but we made a wrong decision about which toll booth line to go through, and we ended up with our only option being to park not to far from the exit on 43. We usually like to get on the other side of the lot and park near that swampy area with all the bullfrogs, but, we messed up.

Anyway, after a LONG walk to the front gate, we entered the park only to find crowded midways! I couldn't believe it! Our first ride was on the Dodgems, the best Dodgems around IMO, because they go so darned fast. I got lucky a chose a 'faster than the rest' gold car, and I was basically zipping around the floor just smoking people left and right. What a great time!

Next we went on the Villian, which is my favorite woodie (next to MIA's Shivering Timbers), and the line was all the way to the bottom of the stairs. It moved pretty fast though. I think they were running at least 2, if not maybe 3 trains. The ride was great as usual. The secret to riding this...is just brace yourself!!!!

Next we went over to Dominator. Line was to the bottom of the stairs, but moved very quickly. My family and I usually like the front seat of this, but we decided to try the back this time. I think we like the back better! Great ride, as always.

From there we went over to Grizzly Run, the water canyon ride. Long line (almost all the way to the entrance!) and it wasn't very fast moving. But we still waited. They were filling all rafts to their capacity (9 people) and we had a wonderful ride with LOTS of spins!

After this, we went on Pepsi Plunge, the log flume. This line was all the way to the ride's entrance point, but wasn't too badly of a wait. People were exiting this ride completely drenched, and I couldn't figure out why until I saw a group of guys camping out by the water canyons and just having a great old time soaking everyone (even us!!!)

We then headed over to another favorite of ours, Big Dipper. Wow....what fun. I had to really brace myself on that one, too, with my knee, my hands, and one foot. That's the only way to not get jerked all around.

After this, we decided it was time to go to the car and eat lunch. We moved the car to the WWK parking lot, sat in the shade and ate our picnic lunch. The WWK lot was fuller than usual, but only by a few rows.

Headed into WWK, which was packed, and went to the wave pool. Now, we witnessed 2 girls "almost drowning", to the point that the waves had to be shut off and a lifeguard jumped in on both occasions. My problem with this is that when they stop the waves, you have to wait the cycle, which I think is 10 minutes for them to start up again. The second time a girl went under, it wasn't even a minute after the waves started. That was kind of disappointing, but I am SO glad the lifeguards there take their jobs so seriously!!!! Both girls were OK, btw, they just went under and were shaken up.

Another thing I noticed, is that by every water attraction at WWK, they have a rowboat FULL of lifejackets of ALL sizes! They are really enforcing their lifejacket rule.

Next ride was my favorite, Liquid Lightning. Now, the line for this was LONG, all the way to the bottom of the stairs, but that ride is so FUN!!!!

After this, we were pretty cold, so we decided to call it a day at WWK, and I wanted to go see Lego Racers, which I hadn't seen before. Very cool and cute!!!! While we were waiting for the movie to start, we rode the Boardwalk Typhoon (Scrambler) which was a lot of fun. A bit of a line for that, too.

We left around 8pm.

Overall, a great trip! Maybe this park can survive, after all!!!!

Glad to hear you had a great time! Maybe things are looking up for GL afterall.

It's just a shame I won't be able to go this year. I really like Dominator, Villain, and Big Dipper.

Nice trip report. I'm heading over to Geauga Lake tomorrow so I'll probably will write a trip report too.

I was at GL also on Sunday. Place was full of people. Local Labor union picnic day. Removing X-Flight and Steel Venom were good moves. When you are in the park now you are cut off from the exterior of the park. (You can't see any of the surrounding community from ground level) When I was at KI a few weeks back the line for FireHawk was over an hour long, which means X-Flight has probably given more rides this year already than the last two at GL combined.

The Villain is now rideable and enjoyable without that trick track. Villainlover is right, Brace yourself and it is a great ride.

The wave pool was shut down by the guards a lot since parents let their kids go in to far. A height requirement should be put in place to go in to the deeper sections of the pool.

I would have to say that ride operations have improved greatly over the past two years.